Many traditional cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy and radiation, effectively destroy cancer cells but often lead to severe side effects that leave patients feeling even more sick.

Two 91爆料 researchers are developing treatments that aim to simultaneously treat cancer and improve patients’ quality of life. , 91爆料 professor of materials science and engineering and of neurological surgery in the 91爆料 School of Medicine, develops tiny systems that deliver cancer treatment specifically to cancer cells. , 91爆料 assistant professor of materials science and engineering and of radiology in the 91爆料 School of Medicine, uses interventional radiology to precisely deliver cancer treatment to the body.

Both Zhang and Som are studying a cancer treatment method called , where a patient’s own immune cells are trained to target and destroy cancer cells. The two researchers are now collaborating with the goal of getting their therapeutics into the clinic.

For World Cancer Day, 91爆料 News asked Zhang and Som to discuss their novel materials and how these materials can treat both the cancer and the patient.

Tell us about your research in this area.聽

Miqin Zhang: One of our key research areas is developing biocompatible nanoplatforms for cancer diagnosis, treatment and therapy-response monitoring. For example, one of our recent advances is using tiny particles called nanoparticles to deliver immunotherapies or vaccines in preclinical animal models. The payloads from these nanoparticles activate immune cells to eradicate drug-resistant solid tumors and metastases.

In general, our nanoplatforms provide tumor specificity in two unique ways:

• The nanoparticles can carry diverse payloads 鈥� including chemotherapeutics and genetic materials 鈥� to address tumor heterogeneity
• We can use different methods to trigger our nanoparticles to release their payloads, such as changing the temperature or pH. Other methods include using enzymes or magnetic fields.

Our systems are designed for versatility and can work in tandem with various tumor-targeting and therapeutic agents.

Avik Som: I am a physician-scientist with clinical training in interventional radiology, with a specific focus in interventional oncology. In this field we often deliver therapy directly to single lesions using small needles and wires. This eliminates the need for invasive surgery in patients who are often too sick for surgery.

My research expertise has focused on developing novel drug delivery materials and techniques for interventional radiologists to use, including in the field of immunotherapy. Interventional radiologists have long succeeded at delivering therapy highly precisely within the body. Using the best of material science, my lab looks at changing what we鈥檙e delivering to heal our patients of both their cancer and the underlying ravages that the cancer has caused.

How can your materials both extend patients’ lives and improve their quality of life?

MZ: Our new nanoparticle materials promise more effective and less harmful treatments in a variety of ways. First, the nanoparticles target cancer cells specifically, which minimizes side effects and enables controlled drug release to maintain therapeutic levels without toxicity spikes.

Next, we design these nanoparticles using biocompatible materials, such as iron oxide and chitosan coatings, which reduce immune-response reactions and make the nanoparticles more compatible with long-term use.

Cancer’s complex and variable nature means that treatments that are effective for one patient might not work for another, which makes it difficult to create one-size-fits-all solutions. But our nanoparticles support personalized medicine because we can target specific mutated genes in individual patients. Furthermore, we can develop nanoparticles that are multifunctional. For example, a single nanoparticle can have capabilities that enable both monitoring as well as treatment.

AS: The concepts of extending patients’ lives and improving their quality of life have effectively been done in parallel for years. For example, the 91爆料 has extensive history and expertise in tissue engineering. But it usually isn’t combined with cancer care because the two goals often feel contradictory: Tissue engineering results from inducing cell growth, while historically cancer therapy has directly focused on killing cells. So the fields have diverged.

But we can design novel materials to do both: One material can use different release rates to stagger the anti-cancer versus tissue-engineering effects. For example, we can use interventional radiology to implant a material directly into a tumor. The material can have an initial burst of drug release that has an anti-cancer effect. And then, after killing the tumor, the residual material can release factors that recruit normal cells to fill in the gap where the cancer was.

Alternatively, as radiologists, we can see where cancer is and isn鈥檛. It is therefore possible to selectively deliver anti-cancer agents to the cancer, while simultaneously delivering pro-tissue engineering agents to normal tissue.

Are any of these treatments currently available in the clinic?

MZ: The process of getting a treatment like this approved is complex and resource-intensive, because it requires extensive research, clinical trials and regulatory approvals. To reduce clinical trial costs, our nanoparticle platform is adaptable for multiple genetic therapies, which offers regulatory advantages and paves the way for FDA approval.

Right now, our nanoparticles are still at the basic research stage and have not yet entered clinical trials. They have, however, demonstrated their efficacy in various pre-clinical animal models. We are now prepared to engage with venture capitalists and major pharmaceutical companies to advance our nanoparticles into clinical trials.

AS: Our research is also still in the basic stage for the moment. We need to determine the best type of material and safest way to deliver it into patients through rigorous pre-clinical testing.

That being said, at the Fred Hutch Cancer Center and 91爆料 Medicine, we are leading an intratumoral therapy group that is ramping up clinical trials for patients using therapies that are in development around the country. In addition, we are working on bringing on more minimally invasive tissue engineering trials to the clinic soon.

What part of this collaboration is the most exciting to you?

AS: I was fortunate to meet Miqin during my interview at 91爆料, and we struck up a vibrant conversation. Miqin has been a leader in the fields of biomaterials and drug delivery, and she is an ideal mentor to help me with my goal of bringing these advances to the clinic.

MZ: I have more than 15 years of experience in cancer research, and I strongly believe that interventional radiology is transforming cancer care by offering minimally invasive, precise treatment options that reduce side effects and improve patient outcomes. I am thrilled to collaborate with Avik so that we can apply our advanced materials and his innovative approaches to enhance interventional radiology for cancer treatment and tissue growth in a way that minimizes side effects and improves patients鈥� quality of life.

Zhang’s research is funded by the Kuni Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. Zhang is also a faculty researcher with the 91爆料 Institute for Nano-Engineered Systems and the Molecular Engineering and Sciences Institute. Som’s research has been funded by the Radiologic Society of North America and the National Institutes of Health.

For more information, contact Zhang at mzhang@uw.edu and Som at aviksom@uw.edu.

For more than 20 years, the 91爆料 has been home to a database built, maintained and expanded around the goal of helping to prevent health complications from adverse drug reactions, one of the of injury and death in health care settings.

This year, the 91爆料 School of Pharmacy鈥檚 , or DIDB 鈥� the core research tool from the school鈥檚 nonprofit team 鈥� is celebrating both for innovation and two decades of independent funding through licensing agreements with companies, research institutes and regulatory agencies around the globe.

鈥淭he award from the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics is a great acknowledgement of the impact we鈥檝e had in the drug development space,鈥� said Dr. , DIDB co-founder and director of Drug Interaction Solutions. 鈥淲e built something from scratch at the 91爆料, and now it is internationally recognized as an authoritative research tool, with over 180 organizations from 40 different countries as subscribers.鈥�

The Drug Interaction Database is a highly detailed, structured matrix of cross-linking entries designed to support research and regulatory scientists in academia, pharmaceutical companies and other organizations in their evaluation of drug interactions and drug safety. Entries for the database are curated by 91爆料 scientists from a wide range of drug-related documents, including clinical studies, drug developer publications, toxicity case reports and FDA New Drug Applications reviews.

The database is continuously updated as new information about drugs becomes available. Currently, the site has more than 170,000 entries involving in vitro (or “test-tube experiments”) and in vivo (in humans) data on metabolic enzymes and drug transporters (proteins in the body that help drugs pass from one organ to another); interactions with other drugs or with foods, herbs, tobacco and genetics; and other factors.

The Drug Interaction Solutions team of experts not only thoroughly reviews drug interaction information but also helps researchers use the system effectively.

鈥淭he impetus to initiate this database resulted from my work with antiepileptic drugs.

My eureka moment occurred in 1994 when I became able to segregate the clinical interactions of the drug phenytoin (Dilantin) according to two distinct but related enzymes. That 鈥榙iscovery鈥� propelled my efforts to pursue the development of the database,鈥� said , the founder of the DIDB and its principal investigator until 2009, when he retired from the 91爆料. Levy has in the field of drug disposition and drug-to-drug interactions聽and remains an advisor to the director.

鈥淭his award recognizes the excellence and dedication of the team of database researchers, as well as the input I received from colleagues in the departments of Pharmaceutics and Medicinal Chemistry in the School of Pharmacy, and the Department of Neurological Surgery in the School of Medicine,鈥� Levy said.

After establishing the plan for building the database and recruiting Ragueneau-Majlessi, Levy was able to gain funding initially through seed grants from several pharmaceutical companies. In 2002, the university began licensing access to the database through . Since then, Drug Interaction Solutions has remained a nonprofit venture with licensing revenues used to cover the costs of scientific and technical maintenance, as well as the development of new features.

鈥淭he DIDB is a prime example of a university-sourced innovation maintained by the university and made available as products directly to customers, as opposed to licensed to others or spun off as a company,鈥� said Ro茂 Eisenkot, senior innovation manager at CoMotion. 鈥淎s a longtime partner of the program, 91爆料 CoMotion has been collaborating with the team to build its licensing offerings and expand into new markets, while supporting all partner contracting activities such as risk management, managing distributors, fee collection and license renewals.鈥�

While the database is not intended for doctors in clinical settings to use directly, Ragueneau-Majlessi explained, it is evolving in that direction through the integration of its data into the tools that help doctors make drug choices and manage adverse drug interactions.

According to the FDA, two-thirds of patient visits result in a prescription, with more drug combinations being used to treat patients. Adverse drug reactions 鈥渋ncrease exponentially with four or more medications,鈥� the agency . In addition, herbals and food products (including fruit juices) can significantly affect various common medications, so multi-drug interactions are frequent in clinical situations.

鈥淚t should not be acceptable that a person can be given two drugs with a major adverse interaction when we know the mechanism behind that interaction,鈥� Ragueneau-Majlessi said. 鈥淲e have the mechanistic and quantitative understanding that allow us to predict drug interactions, and that is very powerful clinically. Adverse drug interactions can be prevented.鈥�

On its website, the Drug Interaction Solutions team the DIDB can support the growth of personalized medicine and the trend toward selecting the most appropriate drug and dose for each unique patient.

鈥淚 really believe that is the next stage for the database,鈥� Ragueneau-Majlessi said. 鈥淲e are now in the era of precision dosing and personalized therapy. And, even if we can鈥檛 prevent all drug interactions, we can manage them. If you understand the mechanism of the drug and its interactions, you can make sure that an individual patient is not negatively affected. Knowledge is power.鈥�

Levy and Ragueneau-Majlessi will officially receive the from the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics in March at the society鈥檚 annual meeting. The award honors scientists in clinical pharmacology who 鈥渉ave demonstrated leadership in the application of significant, innovative science to clinical drug development.鈥�

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For more information contact Marie-Christine Bodinier, senior marketing manager for Drug Interaction Solutions, at mariecb@uw.edu.

Nanoparticles are a promising type of drug delivery system. Also known as nanocarriers, these tiny particles can bind to drugs and protect them from degradation until they enter tumor cells. But their effectiveness as drug carriers and drug protectors, as well as potential toxicity in patients, depends significantly on their size, composition and chemical properties. Balancing these competing factors is a delicate process. Although researchers have made significant advances in nanomedicine in the last decade, it remained a formidable challenge to design and synthesize small, stable nanoparticles that could deliver sufficient drugs to treat solid tumors.

Earlier this year scientists at the 91爆料 announced that they have achieved such a balancing act with a nanoparticle-based drug delivery system that can ferry a potent anti-cancer drug through the bloodstream safely. As they report in a published in May in Materials Today, their nanoparticle is derived from , a natural and organic polymer that, among other things, makes up the outer shells of shrimp.

The team, led by , a 91爆料 professor of materials science and engineering and of neurological surgery, demonstrated that their chitin-derived system can successfully ferry , a potent anti-cancer drug that is also known as paclitaxel, through the bloodstream and inhibit tumor growth and spread, also known as metastasis, in mice. The nanoparticles showed no adverse side effects, likely since they are derived in part from naturally occurring polymer.

鈥淭his could form the basis of a new class of nanoparticle delivery systems that can transport anti-cancer therapeutics through the body safely, with no toxic side effects from the nanoparticle material,鈥� said Zhang, who is also a faculty researcher with the 91爆料 and the .

The nanoparticles, once loaded with Taxol, are about 20.6 nanometers in diameter. That鈥檚 about 1/4000th the width of a human hair, the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative. The particles are small enough to travel through blood vessels and get to potentially compact tumor sites.

Zhang鈥檚 team started by loading Taxol particles onto much longer strands of , a material derived from chitin. The nanofibers break down to form nanoparticles when exposed to serum, a blood protein, either in the lab or in the body. Researchers showed that drug-loaded nanofibers, when injected into mice, broke down rapidly into the tiny nanoparticles 鈥� thanks to serum proteins in the blood 鈥� and could circulate freely in the bloodstream, enter organs and reach tumor sites.

The team subjected Taxol-loaded nanoparticles to a barrage of experiments to see what they could do to tumors. In cell cultures of mouse mammary cancer cells, a majority of cancer cells showed signs of cell death 48 hours after treatment, indicating that nanoparticle-associated Taxol could enter cancer cells and impair cell growth at least as well as free-floating Taxol. In mice, Taxol-loaded nanofibers, which broke down into nanoparticles, showed 90% inhibition of mammary tumor growth compared to about 66% inhibition for Taxol injected in the clinical solution used widely today. The nanoparticles also inhibited melanoma tumor growth in mice by up to 75%. In separate experiments in mice, Taxol-loaded nanoparticles also prevented spread of mammary cancer to other parts of the body, unlike Taxol in a clinical solution.

In addition to these promising findings with tumors, the team found that the nanoparticles kept Taxol circulating in the bloodstream longer, giving the drug more time to reach the tumor site. In the bloodstream of mice, the half-life of Taxol-associated nanoparticles was nearly 25 hours, compared to less than 2 hours for Taxol injected in the clinical solution. Mice injected with the nanofibers showed no signs of toxic side effects, indicating that the nanoparticles themselves weren鈥檛 causing harm to tissues. In contrast, the clinical solution used widely today for Taxol can cause liver toxicity in mice, among other side effects.

Zhang believes that the chitosan-derived nanoparticles could form the basis of a non-toxic drug delivery system for cancer that keeps therapeutics in the body longer to inhibit tumor growth and metastasis.

鈥淭his is a very promising finding. Many drug delivery systems used today for anti-cancer drugs come with toxic side effects, and don鈥檛 protect the drug for very long in the patient鈥檚 body,鈥� said Zhang. 鈥淭he nanoparticles have all the characteristics you could hope for in getting the drug to into tumor cells. The small chitosan-based nanocarrier, made in situ, with unique biocompatibility and biodegradability, offers a new strategy for anti-cancer drug delivery and has great potential for rapid translation to the clinic.鈥�

Co-authors on the paper are Qingxin Mu, Guanyou Lin, Zachary Stephen, Seokhwan Chung and Hui Wang in the 91爆料 Department of Materials Science & Engineering; Victoria Patton in the 91爆料 Department of Chemical Engineering; and Rachel Gebhart in the 91爆料 Department of Chemistry. The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

For more information, contact Zhang at mzhang@uw.edu.

91爆料 researchers are developing the first smartphone app that is capable of objectively detecting concussion and other traumatic brain injuries in the field: on the sidelines of a sports game, on a battlefield or in the home of an elderly person prone to falls.

can detect changes in a pupil鈥檚 response to light using a smartphone鈥檚 video camera and deep learning tools 鈥� a type of artificial intelligence 鈥� that can quantify changes imperceptible to the human eye.

This pupillary light reflex has long been used to assess whether a patient has severe traumatic brain injury, and finds it can be useful in detecting milder concussions 鈥� opening up an entirely new avenue for screening.

The team of 91爆料 computer scientists, electrical engineers and medical researchers has demonstrated that PupilScreen can be used to detect instances of significant traumatic brain injury.聽 A broader clinical study this fall will put PupilScreen in the hands of coaches, emergency medical technicians, doctors and others to gather more data on which pupillary response characteristics are most helpful in determining ambiguous cases of concussion. The researchers hope to release a commercially available version of PupilScreen within two years.

鈥淗aving an objective measure that a coach or parent or anyone on the sidelines of a game could use to screen for concussion would truly be a game-changer,鈥� said , the Washington Research Foundation Endowed Professor of Computer Science & Engineering and of Electrical Engineering at the 91爆料. 鈥淩ight now the best screening protocols we have are still subjective, and a player who really wants to get back on the field can find ways to game the system.鈥�

As described in a to be presented Sept. 13 at , PupilScreen can assess a patient鈥檚 pupillary light reflex almost as well as a pupilometer, an expensive and rarely used machine found only in hospitals. It uses the smartphone鈥檚 flash to stimulate the patient鈥檚 eyes and the video camera to record a three-second video.

The video is processed using deep learning algorithms that can determine which pixels belong to the pupil in each video frame and measure the changes in pupil size across those frames. In a small pilot study that combined 48 results from patients with traumatic brain injury and from healthy people, clinicians were able to diagnose the brain injuries with almost perfect accuracy using the app鈥檚 output alone.

In amateur sports today, even the best practices that coaches or parents use if an athlete is suspected of a concussion during a game 鈥� asking them where they are, to repeat a list of words, balancing, touching a finger to their nose 鈥� essentially consist of subjective assessment. By contrast, PupilScreen aims to generate objective and clinically relevant data that anyone on the sidelines could use to determine whether a player should be further assessed for concussion or other brain injury.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates about in the U.S. from recreational sports injuries alone still go undiagnosed, putting millions of young players and adults at risk for future head injury and permanent cognitive deficits.

Historically, there鈥檚 been no surefire way to diagnose concussion 鈥� even in the emergency room, said co-author Dr. , a resident physician in 91爆料 Medicine鈥檚 Department of Neurological Surgery. Doctors usually run tests to rule out worst cases like a brain bleed or skull fracture. After more serious head injuries are excluded, a diagnosis of concussion can be made.

Medical professionals have long used the pupillary light reflex 鈥� usually in the form of a penlight test where they shine a light into a patient鈥檚 eyes 鈥� to assess severe forms of brain injury. But a growing body of medical research has recently found that more subtle changes in pupil response can be useful in detecting milder concussions.

鈥淧upilScreen aims to fill that gap by giving us the first capability to measure an objective biomarker of concussion in the field,鈥� McGrath said. 鈥淎fter further testing, we think this device will empower everyone from Little League coaches to NFL doctors to emergency department physicians to rapidly detect and triage head injury.鈥�

While the 91爆料 team initially tested PupilScreen with a 3-D printed box to control the eye鈥檚 exposure to light, researchers are now training their machine learning neural network to produce similar results with the smartphone camera alone.

鈥淭he vision we鈥檙e shooting for is having someone simply hold the phone up and use the flash. We want every parent, coach, caregiver or EMT who is concerned about a brain injury to be able to use it on the spot without needing extra hardware,鈥� said lead author , a doctoral student in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering.

One of the challenges in developing PupilScreen involved training the machine learning tools to distinguish between the eye鈥檚 pupil and iris, which involved annotating roughly 4,000 聽images of eyes by hand. A computer has the advantage of being able to quantify subtle changes in the pupillary light reflex that the human eye cannot perceive.

鈥淚nstead of designing an algorithm to solve the specific problem of measuring pupil response, we moved this to a machine learning approach 鈥� collecting a lot of data and writing an algorithm that allowed the computer to learn for itself,鈥� said co-author ,聽 a 91爆料 medical student and doctoral student in physiology and biophysics.

The PupilScreen researchers are currently working to identify partners interested in conducting additional field studies of the app, which they expect to begin in October.

The project was funded by the National Science Foundation, the Washington Research Foundation and Amazon Catalyst.

Co-authors include , and of the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering and 91爆料 Medicine Otolaryngology 鈥� Head and Neck Surgery resident .

For more information, contact the research team at聽uwpupilscreen@gmail.com.

Now, researchers from the 91爆料 Department of Electrical Engineering, 91爆料 Department of Neurological Surgery and 91爆料 Department of Philosophy have teamed up with medical device manufacturer to use the Activa庐 PC+S Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) system with people who have essential tremor. The system is not yet approved by the Food and Drug Administration for commercial use in the United States.

One drawback with existing DBS devices is that batteries only last three to five years, depending upon how frequently stimulation occurs. By increasing battery life, the 91爆料 researchers hope to lengthen the time between surgeries 鈥� which carry risks of coma, bleeding and seizures 鈥� that patients must undergo to replace the device.

鈥淭he technology we鈥檝e created using the Activa PC+S is unique in that it will selectively determine when and how stimulation should occur,鈥� said Jeffrey Herron, a 91爆料 doctoral student in electrical engineering. 鈥淚n doing so, we hope to increase battery life and reduce side effects.鈥�

The technology also aims to alleviate potential side effects from DBS therapy, which can include worsening of motor symptoms and speech and language impairments, by adjusting stimulation parameters.

This type of device, along with externally-worn equipment, is known as a system, because it encompasses the complete path followed by an electrical signal. In this case, the system will use either externally-worn sensors or recorded neural signals in the brain to modify stimulation within limits that are established by a clinician.

In addition, researchers are also exploring the use of voluntary neural commands by the patient to modify the therapeutic stimulation. 鈥淭his will let the patient decide when to adjust their stimulation, to reduce side effects,鈥� said Howard Chizeck, 91爆料 professor of electrical engineering. 鈥淭he negative effects of stimulation on speaking could be reduced voluntarily for a while, at the cost of more tremor,鈥� Chizeck said.

Activa PC+S has been made available to a select number of research institutions worldwide for physician-sponsored research. This collaboration stems from work at the (CSNE), which is based at the 91爆料 and is one of 17 Engineering Research Centers funded by the National Science Foundation. Medtronic is an industry member in the CSNE.

The 91爆料 team received US Food and Drug Administration approval for an investigational device exemption in November 2014 and, subsequently, Institutional Review Board permission to conduct this research with human subjects. 91爆料 Medicine鈥檚 Dr. Andrew Ko and his team have started to recruit patients.

鈥淥ne part of my job that gets me particularly excited is when an operation has the potential to significantly improve a patient鈥檚 function and quality of life,鈥� said Ko, whose research expertise lies in DBS and epilepsy. 鈥淭he patients whom I treat are complex and require multidisciplinary care. This collaboration that teams up neurological surgery, electrical engineering and philosophy really gets at the multidisciplinary approach at the 91爆料 and allows us to explore DBS therapy in a truly innovative manner.鈥�

Timothy Brown, 91爆料 doctoral student in philosophy, is working with researchers on the neuroethics of DBS device design and use. Brown will help shape the research study by exploring how people who have voluntary control over DBS therapy might come to think of themselves (and their abilities) differently than people without that same control.

In conjunction with the Activa PC+S device, scientists will use Medtronic鈥檚 Nexus-D system, which performs real-time command and control of the implanted device.

Research being conducted with the DBS system may one day unlock the mechanism of action for DBS therapy鈥攃urrently, clinicians do not understand how it works, despite its efficacy鈥攁nd lead to future advances in treatment. To date, more than 125,000 patients worldwide have received Medtronic DBS therapy.

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For more, contact Chizeck at chizeck@uw.edu or 206-221-3591 and Susan Gregg with 91爆料 Medicine at sghanson@uw.edu or 206-616-6730.

Now, 91爆料 researchers have demonstrated that when humans use this technology 鈥� called a 鈥� the brain behaves much like it does when completing simple motor skills such as kicking a ball, typing or waving a hand. Learning to control a robotic arm or a prosthetic limb could become second nature for people who are paralyzed.

“What we’re seeing is that practice makes perfect with these tasks,” said , a 91爆料 professor of computer science and engineering and a senior researcher involved in the study. “There’s a lot of engagement of the brain’s cognitive resources at the very beginning, but as you get better at the task, those resources aren’t needed anymore and the brain is freed up.”

Rao and 91爆料 collaborators , a professor of neurological surgery, and , a doctoral student in bioengineering, online June 10 in the .

In this study, seven people with severe epilepsy were hospitalized for a monitoring procedure that tries to identify where in the brain seizures originate. Physicians cut through the scalp, drilled into the skull and placed a thin sheet of electrodes directly on top of the brain. While they were watching for seizure signals, the researchers also conducted this study.

The patients were asked to move a mouse cursor on a computer screen by using only their thoughts to control the cursor’s movement. Electrodes on their brains picked up the signals directing the cursor to move, sending them to an amplifier and then a laptop to be analyzed. Within 40 milliseconds, the computer calculated the intentions transmitted through the signal and updated the movement of the cursor on the screen.

Researchers found that when patients started the task, a lot of brain activity was centered in the prefrontal cortex, an area associated with learning a new skill. But after often as little as 10 minutes, frontal brain activity lessened, and the brain signals transitioned to patterns similar to those seen during more automatic actions.

“Now we have a brain marker that shows a patient has actually learned a task,” Ojemann said. “Once the signal has turned off, you can assume the person has learned it.”

While researchers have demonstrated success in using brain-computer interfaces in monkeys and humans, this is the first study that clearly maps the neurological signals throughout the brain. The researchers were surprised at how many parts of the brain were involved.

“We now have a larger-scale view of what’s happening in the brain of a subject as he or she is learning a task,” Rao said. “The surprising result is that even though only a very localized population of cells is used in the brain-computer interface, the brain recruits many other areas that aren’t directly involved to get the job done.”

Several types of brain-computer interfaces are being developed and tested. The least invasive is a device placed on a person’s head that can detect weak electrical signatures of brain activity. Basic commercial gaming products are on the market, but this technology isn鈥檛 very reliable yet because signals from eye blinking and other muscle movements interfere too much.

A more invasive alternative is to surgically place electrodes inside the brain tissue itself to record the activity of individual neurons. Researchers at and the have demonstrated this in humans as patients, unable to move their arms or legs, have learned to control robotic arms using the signal directly from their brain.

The 91爆料 team tested electrodes on the surface of the brain, underneath the skull. This allows researchers to record brain signals at higher frequencies and with less interference than measurements from the scalp. A future wireless device could be built to remain inside a person’s head for a longer time to be able to control computer cursors or robotic limbs at home.

“This is one push as to how we can improve the devices and make them more useful to people,” Wander said. “If we have an understanding of how someone learns to use these devices, we can build them to respond accordingly.”

The research team, along with the headquartered at the 91爆料, will continue developing these technologies.

This research was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the NSF, the Army Research Office and the Keck Foundation.

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For more information, contact Rao at rao@cs.washington.edu or 206-685-9141 and Wander at jdwander@gmail.com.